Vegetation response to a climate gradient in the eastern Canadian Arctic – mapping based on ground plots and remote sensing

Abstract:

The eastern Canadian Arctic encompasses the entire Arctic bioclimate gradient, from treeline to ice caps. We sampled and mapped the vegetation around a series of lakes along this gradient. The maps include the entire catchment basins for the lakes, and use a consistent legend, so that vegetation units can be compared between lakes. Vegetation plots were sampled around the lakes, and cover values were recorded for lichens, bryophytes and vascular plants. Plant communities were identified using ordination techniques. The four lakes include one near Pond Inlet, Baffin Island, Nunavut (next to an ice cap, 72.4 °N), one near Clyde River, one near Iqaluit, and one near Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, Quebec (at treeline 58.1°N). The vegetation types range from rocky terrain with lichens to open spruce forest with low shrub and moss understory. These maps will be used to compare current vegetation with evidence of past vegetation found in cores from the lakes, which include times both warmer and colder than present. The differences along the climate gradient will also be helpful in predicting the response of vegetation to climate warming.